kelpiechick

See you there. It's my first one since Bendigo (due to a split open paw between the toes) so we will be sorely out of practice, but we can't wait to run !

They are printing as I type, I promise....... I am even braving one agility run under a judge that I said I would NEVER run under again - just for you and your bumping Silvawilow Although I wasn't quite insane enough to enter his jumping !

Have read it. I bought it as an Instructor wanting to implement more into Foundation class but I can't say there was too much new in there for me. It stresses the importance of flatwork (which I really liked) and covers 'agility heeling', circle work (this part was similar to Greg Derrett foundation training) figure 8's, perch work, crosses on the flat, then the last chapters put it together with some jump sequences. It also has information on reinforcement schedules from memory. It's OK and there were some good exercises in there but IMO a better choice is 'From the Ground Up' by Kim Collins. This has chapters on beginning foundation training, flatwork, pre obstacle training and obstacle training, plus targeting, reinforcement, beginning sequencing and has foundation skill checklists in the back to work through. One of the best foundation training refs. I have read

Agility Dog Club Victoria (Altona North) Was there anything particular you were thinking of buying? I confess I am a junkie when it comes to agility DVD's and have seen quite a few. I am happy to give you a run down on any I've seen before you buy if that helps. I am also planning on posting some reviews of some of them here after they go in our club newsletter - have already done 'Control Unleashed' and am working on one for new Susan Salo Foundation Jumping DVD. And beware - once you buy one DVD , they are very addictive

What days/events are you planning on entering? I will be there Friday and Sunday (2 hour drive 3 days in a row when realistically I don't think I will be making the Masters final was a bit much for me but I wanted to at least say I had run) It's difficult to commit without knowing ring clashes, etc. I would happily run her for you if I knew it wasn't going to clash with anything I have entered, but as others have said, I have to give the focus to my dog first. If you go ahead and enter, you may find someone on the day, but I guess it's a risk to take, not to metion a long way to go. You may also find a handler among those who run NADAC - but it's probably not very 'politically correct' to post on the NADAC list. I will ask around for you tho' - there are some very good handlers running NADAC who don't run ANKC due to dog being retired, etc. who may be happy to run for you as they won't be running their own dog. And yes, you are chatty this morning. (I'm just trying to get out of painting my house on a day off.)

Does your club have a library where you can borrow them? If not, maybe talk to them about starting one up. We have a library at ADCV where members can borrow DVD's, books or Clean Run magazine free of charge, but liable for replacement value if anything happens to them. Seems to work pretty well and the club is good about purchasing any recommendations.

NADAC same as ADAA I think. They're certainly tighter spaced than ANKC.

Jumpers - course made up of jumps & tunnels. No broad jump and although there is a NADAC style tyre, I haven't seen one in a long time. (not that I run NADAC all that much tho'. ) Courses tend to be a bit more flowing than ANKC and there is the same distance between all jumps, whereas ANKC can vary. Regular - 'normal' agility. No table. Lower and wider A Frame and rubberised surface on contact equipment. There used to be a seesaw but I don't think they are using that any more. Only 6 weaves in novice and the spacing between them is a little tighter than ANKC. Gamblers - they don't have it any more. Have Chances which may have a distance handling component. (the 'chance' is that at novice level you will either get a distance challenge, discrimination challenge or directional challenge.) Weavers - course made up of tunnels and weaves. Touch n'go - course made up of contact equipment. (may have tunnels? have not run this in years) Tunnellers - course made up of tunnels. Hoopers - have not seen this but have seen the hoops. Course made up of large hoops that sit on the ground (also known as ground speed obstacles) and the dogs run through them. Hope this helps, someone who runs NADAC more regularly than I do may be able to help more.

Hi Heidii- you can buy tunnels direct from 'Plasticoat' in Altona or (I think) from 'Purple Pig' in Sunshine. (Tunnels are mine ventilation rolls) Plasticoat sell in 5m lengths. Will PM you with a couple of contacts for other equipment.

Go on, do it ! You know you want to ! The other thing that I loved about it was for some of the more advanced grids there is footage of dogs 'getting it wrong' so you can see how she fixes it. I taped my dogs doing one of the grids and will post it - as soon as I can figure out how !

Time to resurrect this thread with a new favourite. Have just finished watching all 4 DVD's from Susan Salo's Jump Foundation Training. Awesome :rolleyes: And for those of you who are as 'blonde' as me and took 9 pages of notes while watching - DVD number 4 includes training notes. All the related articles published in Clean Run, plus another 25 pages from Salo herself which is a run down of everything on the DVD's with diagrams, measurement tables, etc. (Insert DVD into computer, right click the icon for it in My Computer, then click explore and you are given a whole list of PDF files.) So now I have my own little booklet as well as the DVD's. With this option they were well worth the expense. Anyone else seen them and what did you think?

Great answer - thanks Pippi BC4me, I really like the idea of a '3 tier system' with the helpers, trainees and then instructors. Thanks.

Thanks for the replies so far. Everything is helpful - the more info. the more we can make informed decisions as to what is the best process to put in place so please keep the ideas coming. Staff 'n' Toller, I am at Agility Dog Club Vic.

Our agility club is finally (after 4 years) looking at training some new instructors. But at a meeting with 14 people, there are 14 different opinions about how it should be done. So my questions are - 1. Does anyone's club have a program in place for training new instructors? 2. What does this involve? 3. What do you think an agility instructor needs to know? TIA !

Don't blame you at all - I think you're 'bang on the money' in that this format should attract more entries- and you're competing with a lot on offer at this time of the year in the lead up to the Nationals. But from a purely selfish viewpoint, I am still going to wallow in my sooky la-la moment. ;)

From a personal viewpoint - very disappointed. One of the reasons I loved running this trial so much was the small entry, single ring format which gave it a lovely laid back feel, and allowed everyone to sit around watching and cheer on everyone else whether they were clear or not - something sadly missing from trials these days as everyone is too busy running around and only worries about themselves. Plus having the late start was nice and relaxing too. I was planning on my young boy making his debut here as I thought it would be a good first trial atmosphere for him, but will rethink that now. From the club's viewpoint - it is probably a way smarter decision. I'm sure they will get a much bigger entry this time as people are more likely to travel the distance to get more runs in - plus the choice of games for those who like them are there too. And I admire this little club so much for still offering agility trials when a lot of the bigger city clubs have pulled the pin and put them in the 'too hard' basket - so I hope they do well. Helen - to be fair, one of those judges I have never run under I have to admit, only in games, but does not come highly recommended by most trialers. But I should probably make up my own mind. The one that I choose never to run under any more - one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life, but when you continually get courses that have up to 5 or 6 lead leg changes in just one section of a course, and quite common for there to be 0 passes at Masters level ............. I have trouble running these type of courses in a way that makes sense to my dog. I prefer courses I can actually run on rather than spending half my time standing still and competing with obstacles!

Oh well - after the awesome courses there last year I guess the only way to go was down. At least the games are good for a laugh.

Bugar - my favourite trial every year, I so look forward to this one ...... and then I saw this year's judge selection

Think the State trial is the week after (29th) so you might be in luck.

Awww - I LOVE your goals for your puppy. A couple of good 'work at home' references for a future performance dog are : 1. (Book) 'Building Blocks for Foundation' (Bobbie Anderson) 2. (DVD) 'Crate Games' (Susan Garrett) - especially as you mentioned you are crate training. Available from here. I used the book with my last 2 dogs (in conjunction with the training level ref. already given to you by previous posters - although I modified this and wrote my own with an 'agility slant' for the youngest dog.) For my next puppy - wishful thinking- I will be using the crate games DVD - awesome for building relationship and creating a dog that really wants to work with you. Good Luck and enjoy - puppies are such a joy to work with but they grow up SOOOO fast !

The targeting used to send a dog forward is not the same as that used for contacts - assuming you are using a target disc (clear perspex or a lid type thingy - good English huh) to teach the nose touch for 2o2o. When I teach 'drive forward targeting' in class I never get my students to use the contact one. They either put down a toy as the target or if they are using food I like them to put it in a food pouch (e-z treat or tug and treat - with the velcro open so that the dog can get the food out itself.) Eventually the food pouch starts to get value for a food driven dog and they will usually start to interact with the pouch - just as good as tugging IMO as you have intereaction with you, the dog and the toy. For a velcro dog you need to do a lot of building value for each obstacle (as a previous poster mentioned, a la Susan Garrett 'one jump') and you also need to do a lot of rewarding away from your body so that your dog doesn't think that all rewards happen at your side. What does your dog like to work for the most? Think outside the square and see if you can turn this into a 'target'.

The 'click' does not release the dog to reward (and neither should a bridge word such as 'yes') It is a marker that tells the dog 'you offered the behaviour I wanted and a reward is coming.' Still need a release word. There is nothing wrong with using a word instead of a clicker (agree you don't need both) but I don't know what it is - I have trained my last 2 dogs with clicker and there is a big difference in the attitude they bring to working with me, so I wouldn't be chucking mine in the bin just yet. The look on their face when the clicker comes out is priceless. When teaching a behaviour you need to break it down into as many little steps as possible before getting to your final goal. (This is called shaping) The big mistake that a lot of people make is going for too much too soon. (eg: when teaching to shake hands, expecting the dog to lift its paw up a fair way off the ground) You need to aim very small, especially with such a young dog, so that you can reward every approximation toward the end behaviour. Is there anything that causes your dog to lift its paw just a tiny bit ? (eg: if I sit on the floor next to one of mine and put my hand on the floor, then he usually puts his paw on my hand, so if I wanted to teach shake hands I would begin there and click that - then I would gradually lift my hand higher and higher until I had the height I wanted, then I would shape position. ) This may take many sessions and I would not move on to the next step until I was satisfied with the one before. Here are some good websites about clicker training that may help you. www.clickandtreat.com Go to clicker articles for a basic introduction - including the explanation why a clicker is more precise than using your voice. www.clickerdogs.com Also do a search for 'Karen Pryor' and find her website - it's changed since I last used it so don't have a current address. There are also some videos on Youtube showing dogs being trained to shake hands. (need to do a search sorry) Hope this helps.

What ? Agility is not real life ??????? That's my bubble burst then ! :p ;)

Will PM you with details Silvawillow.

Yeah, me too Would just about sell my soul for those contacts ! Release word question first. Yes, I use the same word at all times. (OK) The running contact on the A Frame has been (and continues to be) a bit of an experiment. Apparently it is 'flavour of the month' in the US to do 2020 on d/w and running on AFrame but that was not the reason I chose it . (although I did have some help from a US trainer who stayed with me when she was over to do a seminar) Began by teaching my younger dog to run lowered A Frame first in preparation to then adding 2020. (With the other dog I backchained the end first and never really ended up with a fast contact because he never learned to run it. Therefore, train the running part first - then the 'stopping'.) Had a stride regulator at the top to teach him to jump over top and hoop at bottom to teach him to lower his head, then I videoed it. He is a really tall kelpie (will be jumping 600) so I never thought that a running contact would be an option for him but surprisingly he seemed to hit the identical spots every single time- so I added a touch board at the bottom (where he was hitting) and decided to raise the A Frame slowly and see what happened. We are almost up to full height now and he continues to hit same spot every time. Have removed the stride regulator and touch board and have removed the gate intermittently and it doesn't seem to make any difference so for the time being I am going with it. I figure I can always change to 2020 if I need to later as he has a good performance of this on the d/w. Plus I can still run fast enough to be in position to handle the next obstacle after AFrame with a running but I doubt that I could do this with a running d/w. Good luck with whatever method you decide to choose. Training contacts is fun and it's such a buzz when they finally start to 'get it.'